I wouldn't jeopardize friendship by telling

Jan. 23, 2013

I glanced around the classroom looking for anything that could possibly spark a memory of the answers for my test. A pen? No. My chair? No. That bug stuck in the ceiling light? Nope.

As I searched the room, I noticed my best friend, Frankie, had his head turned, peeking at his neighbor’s test. My eyebrows shot up and my mouth dropped like an actor’s in a movie. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He would never cheat. No. He couldn’t. He’s such a nice guy. I’ve known him basically my whole life and never saw him cheat. At that instant, I decided not to report him to the teacher, but I was definitely going to talk to him about never cheating again.

If you were in this situation, what would you have done? As you can see, my first reaction was to not say anything. This is because Frankie and I have a lot of history together. When I moved to town at 5 years old, he was my first and best friend. Ever since, we’ve been through everything together. My life would shatter if Frankie wasn’t there for me. Since our friendship is unbreakable, I would convince him to stop cheating and offer to help tutor him. I’d never tell on him because getting a friend in trouble for a little thing isn’t worth risking a whole lifetime of friendship.

I know that his reaction doesn’t roll that well with educators. So, to all the adults out there, think back to your school life. Try to remember having a kid’s perspective where, for many, their social life was everything to them. Then picture your best friend cheating on a test. Now stop and ponder what you would do next. I can’t tell what your answer is, but I hope that you can see what friendship means to a kid.

“Why didn’t you tell a teacher?” some may ask. “It’s the right thing to do. He didn’t deserve that grade.” Well, I kept silent because I feel that friendships are irreplaceable. A onetime act of “crime” shouldn’t affect a relationship by such drastic measures. If it were Frankie who saw me cheating. I would think that he would do what I did for him.